HEMSTERHUIS HENBANE. 



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water employed, to render the hemp more soft and 

 easy to dress. In Suffolk, they use machinery to 

 break out the reed from the hemp. Beating the 

 hemp is the next operation, which is now generally 

 done by a water-mill, which raises three heavy 

 beaters, that fall down alternately, and a boy attends 

 to turn the heaps of the hemp. A method has of 

 late been discovered, and put in practice, whereby 

 the fibres of hemp are split and manufactured into 

 yarn approaching in fineness to that formed of flax. 

 Excellent cloth is manufactured of this yarn. 



HEMSTERHUIS, TIBERIUS, a Dutch philologist, 

 celebrated for his learning, particularly in the Greek 

 and Roman languages, and for the new philological 

 school which he founded, was born at Groningen, 

 in 1685, and died in 1756, at Leyden, where he was 

 professor of the Greek language and of history. His 

 father was a learned and respectable physician in 

 Groningen, from whom he received his first instruc- 

 tion ; and, as early as his fourteenth year, he entered 

 the university of his native city, where he studied 

 particularly mathematics. Some years afterwards, 

 he went to Leyden, where he was commissioned to 

 arrange the manuscripts in the library of the uni- 

 versity. He was not twenty years old when he was 

 appointed professor of mathematics and philosophy 

 at Amsterdam. Here he entered into the philolo- 

 gical career. He now undertook an edition of 

 Julius Pollux, the lexicographer, and was thus led 

 into a correspondence with the great Bentley, whose 

 overpowering, though friendly criticism, for a short 

 time, discouraged the young man. But he soon 

 applied himself more zealously to the study of all the 

 Greek authors, in chronological order, and with such 

 success, that he may justly be said to have been the 

 most profound Hellenist of the age. He was, in the 

 full sense of the words, a grammarian and critic at 

 the same time, and he united to this the most com- 

 prehensive knowledge of all matters connected in 

 any manner with his studies. We are indebted to 

 him for the foundation of the study of the Greek 

 language, on the basis of analogy, for which Joseph 

 Scaliger and Salmasius had prepared the way. By 

 this analogical method, new light was shed on the 

 origin and signification of words ; the relation of 

 single words to similar ones was pointed out, as 

 well as their relation to the Latin language, which 

 he frequently traced back to the -flColian dialect. 

 Hemsterhuis was not less familiar with Latin, al- 

 though his style in that knguage wants the easy grace 

 which we find in Ruhnken. This philologist and 

 Valkenaer were his most distinguished pupils. His 

 principal works are the above-mentioned edition of 

 the Onomasticon of Julius Pollux, Select Dialogues 

 of Lucian, and the Plutus of Aristophanes. Besides 

 these, he wrote a number of excellent annotations 

 and emendations to different authors, and several 

 academical discourses. He was remarkable for 

 mildness and modesty of character, and was entirely 

 exempt from the severe and dogmatical tone of many 

 of the Dutch philologists. His grateful pupil and 

 friend, Ruhnken, in the classical memoir which he 

 has consecrated to his memory, gives some fine traits 

 of his character. Jac. Geel has published from the 

 manuscripts of Hemsterhuis, which are preserved in 

 the library at Leyden, Anecdota Hemsterhusiana 

 (Leyden and Leipsic, 1825.) 



HEMSTERHUIS, FRANCIS ; son of the preceding. 

 To the classical learning which he inherited from his 

 father, he added the study of philosophy, in par- 

 ticular that of Socrates, which speaks in all his 

 productions. Hence his predilection for the animated 

 form of the dialogue, in preference to a systematic 

 method. The sensual system of Locke was the 

 foundation of his philosophy, but was extended by 



him with great acuteness, interwoven with observa- 

 tions of his own, and, exhibited in a manner full of 

 life and taste. In the society of the princess Galllt- 

 zin, to whom he dedicated several of his writings, 

 under the name of Diotima, and of the count of 

 Furstenberg, he made a journey through Germany, 

 in which he collected a rich treasure of observations 

 on the fine arts, which he communicated to his friend 

 and colleague Smeth, in a letter originally written 

 in Dutch, and translated into French. His philoso- 

 phical views he has expressed, in particular, in the 

 dialogue Sophyle oit de la Philosophic. Another 

 class of his writings refers chiefly to the philosophy 

 of the arts and to arclueology ; among which is, the 

 Lettre sur la Sculpture (1760), in which he treats on 

 the objects of the fine arts, and in particular of 

 sculpture, and on their different periods. The dia- 

 logue Aristee ou de la Divinite (2d edit., 1779) is 

 devoted to the philosophy of religion, as well as the 

 celebrated Lettre de Diodes a Diotime sur VAtheisme 

 (1785), which was first made known and answered 

 by his friend F. J. Jacobi (Essay on the Doctrine of 

 Spinoza). His other writings are a dialogue Alexis, 

 ou de VAge d'Or (On the Golden Age), and the mas- 

 terly Description philosophique du Caractere du feu 

 M. Fr. Fagel (1773). All these writings were col- 

 lected and published by Jansen, first in 1792, and in 

 a 2d edition in 1809 (Paris, in 2 vols.) Of the cir- 

 cumstances of his life, we know nothing more parti- 

 cular, than that he was born in 1720, that he resided 

 first at Leyden, then at the Hague, as a private 

 individual ; that he occupied, for some time, the post 

 of first clerk in the office of the secretary of the 

 United Netherlands, and was one of the directors of 

 the drawing academy at Amsterdam. He died at 

 the Hague, in 1790. 



HEM US. See Balkan. 



HENAULT, CHARLES JOHN FRANCIS ; president 

 of the parliament of Paris ; an eminent French his- 

 torian, and writer on polite literature. He was the 

 son of a farmer-general, and was born at Paris in 

 1685. He first adopted the ecclesiastical profession, 

 and entered among the fathers of the oratory ; but 

 he quitted that society for the long robe, and ob- 

 tained the posts of president of the chamber of in- 

 quests, and superintendent of the finances of the 

 queen's household. He produced a poem, which, in 

 1707, obtained a prize from the French academy. 

 In 1713, his tragedy of Cornelia was brought on the 

 stage, where, however, it was not well received. 

 In 1723, he was admitted into the French academy ; 

 and he also became a member of the academy of in- 

 scriptions and belles-lettres, and of other literary as- 

 sociations. He was intimately connected with 

 madame du Deffand, and from his rank, as well 

 as his talents, he held a distinguished station among 

 the Parisian literati. His Abrege Chronologique de 

 I'Histoire de France, exhibiting a tabular view of 

 French history, has been translated into several lan- 

 guages, and been repeatedly imitated; last edition 

 (Paris, 1821), continued by Walckenaer. He was 

 also the author of comedies, poems, academical dis- 

 courses, &c. He died in 1770. In the following 

 year was published, posthumously, his Histoire 

 Critique de /' ' Etablissement des Francois dans les 

 Gaules (2 vols. 8vo.); and in 1806, appeared Les 

 (Euvres inedites du President Henault (8vo.). 



HENBANE (hyoscyamus niger); a herbaceous 

 annual plant, growing to the height of about two 

 feet, with sinuate leaves, and yellow flowers, veined 

 with purple, and situated in the axils of the superior 

 leaves. The whole plant is hairy, and, like others of 

 the same natural family (solanece), possesses a heavy, 

 disagreeable odour, and dangerous narcotic proper 

 tus- Cases of poisoning* from eeting this plant 



